For quite a few football clubs, it's not going to be a Happy New Year. It's going to be a lousy one.
While the recession has not hit football as hard as other industries, it will. The knock-on effect was always going to take about six months.
Next month, several clubs are going to be up a certain creek without a paddle.
Norwich may have debts aproaching �20 million, a board who wants to sell and a team which is struggling at the wrong end of the season, but it could be worse. A lot worse. Over the coming weeks and months, there'll be some high-profile victims.
The first set of league tables for the 2009/2010 season will make interesting reading because for starters, there'll probably be a couple of established Premiership clubs relegated and equally, the same will apply to some current Championships clubs. Hopefully, City won't be one of them and I'm confident they'll be OK.
It is also absolute banker that like Rotherham, Luton and Bournemouth this term, some clubs will start the campaign with a negative goal difference following administration.
From what I hear, a a few Championship clubs could be in trouble in January. Sheffield Wednesday, Derby and Coventry don't have particularly good finances, while the situation with Ipswich and their introverted chairman is simply weird.
Yet Southampton are the club I fear for the most. While their returning chairman Rupert Lowe insists everything is rosy on the south coast, the facts are they will probably sell their top two players next month in a desperate bid to avoid administration.
The club is �27.5 million in debt but most crucially, has barely any working capital to continue day-to-day operations.
Some of the club's players and coaches are also underestood to be extremely concerned by increased involvement in team matters by some of Southampton's directors.
Striker Adam Lallana, 20, rated at �2 million, and midfielder Andrew Surman – who could fetch �1.5 million – are to be sold for an instant cash injection.
If the club is still unable to pay wages, and with the banks refusing to increase their already large overdraft, Southampton will have to call in the administrators.
It will be a fall from grace for the 2003 FA Cup finalists, who have failed to recover from relegation from the Premiership four years ago.
Despite selling a string of key players, including Theo Walcott to Arsenal, they have failed to balance the books.
In the last financial year, despite making a �12.7 million in transfer profits by selling Chris Baird, Kenwyne Jones and Gareth Bale, the club still made an overall loss of �4.9 million. Stern John and Grzegorz Rasiak have been farmed out on loan in a bid to cut costs.
Dutch coach Jan Poortvliet was hired in the summer on relatively low wages and while he has got the team playing good football, they remain in trouble.
The other club struggling is Watford.
They sell star players Tommy Smith and John-Joe O'Toole in the January transfer window in a desperate attempt to raise funds so they can pay the players' wages for the rest of the season.
Their chairman, Graham Simpson, was forced out of the club after six years as he failed to attract new investors, with Chinese, Thai, Ukranian and Hungarian businessmen all put off by his �20 million valuation of a majority shareholding.
Simpson agreed to go 30 minutes before an extraordinary general meeting which was called after a vote of no confidence in the board by former directors Jimmy and Vince Russo, who have made their millions selling salad to supermarkets.
Yet while the club has little debt, like Southampton, it has aboslutely no working capital. They have already had to shelve plans to continue their redevelopment of the ground.
Watford are now dipping into their �4 million overdraft, but they will have to sell Smith and O'Toole.
To cap it all, their new manager Brendan Rodgers has yet to sign contract because he so concerned about the situation he has walked into.
So, you can the impressession that two of Norwich's relegation rivals could end up getting relegated due to their problems off the pitch which could see them sell their only decent players.
Charlton, Saturday's opponents, are also in turmoil. After failing to sell the club to some billionaire Arabs, their long-standing chairman Richard Murray is facing major pressure from shareholders and there could be a big shake-up their next year. Also, Phil Parkinson is hardly pulling up trees after taking over from Alan Pardew.
Equally, in the Premiership, catastrophies are just around the corner. West Ham, in particular.
It wouldn't be a surprise if Rob Green and Matthew Upson are flogged in January to ease their financial crisis and if they stick with Gianfranco Zola as manager, he'll take them down in any case.
Portsmouth is another club in dire trouble. Having won the FA Cup and earning a nice little run in Europe, their debts are about �60 million.
For a club which could not even sell-out Sunday's home game with Newcastle, their massive wage bill is simply far too big.
Due to the amount of money fans have been forced to pay to watch football over the years, particularly in the Prem, there won't be too many tears if a few big clubs fall on hard times like Leeds. If some wealthy players end up not getting paid, then so be it.
In the words of Anthea Turner, they'll have to sell their “mansion”.
So, City fans understandably worried about everything that has been happening at Carrow Road should take a long, hard look around the country.
Luton, who once played in the top flight, are heading into the Conference due to their financial failings and I think in a few years time, some far bigger clubs will be preparing for league trips to Histon and Forest Green Rovers.
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